Why Stay in a Serviced Apartment Instead of a Hotel?

For years, serviced apartments have been the ‘go-to’ temporary accommodation for business travellers, and with good reason. While we admit that for stays of just one or two nights some may prefer to book a hotel, the benefits of serviced apartments are simply too good to ignore for longer stays. More space, greater privacy and kitchen facilities all for the same, if not cheaper, rate. What’s not to love about serviced apartments?

Space

The most obvious advantage of deciding against staying within the confines of a hotel room is the greater space afforded in a serviced apartment. On average, a serviced apartment has 30% more space than a hotel room. A lot of the time, a one bedroom apartment is the same rate or less than the cost of a hotel room. That means that as well as more space, you actually have separate rooms to sleep, eat and live. Gone are the days of eating room service meals propped up on your bed, being careful not to spill anything on the duvet. Instead, eat at the table or plant yourself on the sofa. There’s even enough room to hold meetings or invite guests over for dinner.

Kitchen

While we’re certainly partial to a bit of room service, after a week you can easily exhaust all options on the menu and long for some proper home cooked food. Well, in a serviced apartment, you can have the best of both worlds. If you’d like to have the option of room service, but still have kitchen facilities, then choosing an aparthotel may be for you. If you’re staying for a week, a month or six months, then eating out every night is neither cost effective nor great for the waistline. Pots, pans, utensils, cutlery and crockery all come included meaning you’re well equipped to make your favourite meals from the comfort of your apartment.

Facilities

We’ve already discussed the kitchen facilities available in serviced apartments but there are plenty more amenities which help to elevate a stay in a serviced apartment. Many apartments have a dishwasher meaning you don’t have to wash up after yourself while having a washing machine/tumble drier in your apartment is great for long stays. If an apartment doesn’t have laundry facilities, there’ll be on-site communal facilities or a laundry service. The majority of serviced apartments also have free Wi-Fi and some even offer rental of office equipment such as printers and scanners. While the apartments themselves are well kitted out, there are also a number of properties which offer gym facilities, bars, restaurants and even on-site shops!

Privacy

Regardless of which type of serviced apartment you opt-for, you’ll always benefit from more privacy than a hotel. There are even serviced apartments that have no on-site staff if you’d rather have complete privacy. But, just because there are no on-site staff doesn’t mean you miss out on having a maid service (hence serviced apartment). Your apartment will be cleaned and towels/linen replaced at least once a week but the frequency can be increased if required.

Cost

So, we’ve gone through a list of benefits as long as your arm, but how much more do you have to pay than a hotel? Well, nothing. In fact, staying in a serviced apartment is more likely to save you money. Take a look at the graphic above. As you can see, a one bedroom apartment is usually about the same price as an equivalent standard hotel room. However, what’s different is that serviced apartments are dynamically priced dependent on the length of stay. Stay in a hotel for one day or one month and the rate per night is the same. Stay in a serviced apartment for any extended period of time and the rate will generally decrease. One factor that contributes to this is that VAT is only levied at 20% for the first 28 days. The VAT rate for subsequent days is applied only to 20% of the rate (in effect a rate of 4% is charged on the whole rate after the first 28 days). For more info on how the cost of serviced apartments compare to hotels head over to our cost comparison page.

And there you have it. If you want to save money by staying in larger accommodation where you can cook your own food from the privacy of your apartment, then why not choose a serviced apartment over the four walls of a hotel room.

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About the Author

As PR Marketing Manager at SilverDoor, Josh is always on top of what's happening in the business travel industry with a particular focus on the serviced apartment sector. As well as the SilverDoor blog, he's also written articles for a number of industry publications.